well i was trying to mine sentences off the yotsubato manga but im having trouble doing it. first is that a lot of words have more than one meaning. and i don't know which is the correct to use for that sentence and these words that im trying to get the meaning of are kana words not kanji. so does anyone have any tips for me on what i should do about it?

For the kana words I think all you can do is put in an electronic dictionary or an online dictionary and check each word as the kanji will differ.

Have you tried searching the web for Japanese sites? I'm going to be apartment searching here in Japan in about a year so I just typed アパート探し into Google and got loads of info and sentences.

Then again, depends on what you want to learn.

If you don't know the meaning of a word in a sentence at all, you don't understand the meaning of the sentence, so you should probably just forget about it and move on if you can't figure it out (try a J-J dictionary). Eventually you'll be able to figure it out, as you gain more knowledge of everything else, so you don't need to worry about it now.

Any particular examples, though?

QuackingShoe Wrote:If you don't know the meaning of a word in a sentence at all, you don't understand the meaning of the sentence, so you should probably just forget about it and move on if you can't figure it out (try a J-J dictionary). Eventually you'll be able to figure it out, as you gain more knowledge of everything else, so you don't need to worry about it now.

Any particular examples, though?

here was the sentence was trying to translate

あんまりのり出すと危ないぞー

for teh first word あんまり　it had a bunch of different meanings said Jim Breen's translator i tried yahoo dictionary but i couldn't find the word on it.

あんまり is a more emphatic あまり(余り)... in theory. Actually I very rarely hear あまり, mm. Anyway, As the kanji implies, it has to do with a surplus or remainder or whatever. Giving a translation like "It's dangerous to (if you, と conditional) lean out so far (much)."
The issue with having a lot of definitions for a single word is usually a matter of attempting to provide a literal list of every possible way it could ever be translated into English, which is pretty faulty. The best thing you can do is to figure out the core meaning of a word.

For the future I guess you just need to find a good dictionary. I don't actually use dictionaries a great lot, so I usually just stop by sanseido or yahoo, but there are definitely better things out there (especially if you actually buy something :o). Alternatively I often google a word or phrase for more examples of it's usage.

From school, I remember that あんまり is a variant of あまり, just like やはり＝やっぱり, みな＝みんな, そうして＝そして. It's dangerous if you noridasu too much.

But yeah, I agree, if you don't know the meaning of a sentence, don't train with it. What's the point? I find no shortage of material I do understand. If it appeals to you, save it in a file and have a look at it in a year's time to see if you understand it now.

Yahoo's 大辞林 is my favorite. I have it in electronic format.

I also google for different uses, but I google image search and read the descriptions. Very useful.

konakona50 Wrote:first is that a lot of words have more than one meaning. and i don't know which is the correct to use for that sentence and these words that im trying to get the meaning of are kana words not kanji. so does anyone have any tips for me on what i should do about it?

This is what I do when I come across a sentence I don't understand:

1. Check a word dictionary.
2. Check a grammar dictionary and/or ALC.
3. Read a translation, if available, and try to make sense.
4. Skip it.

Don't be afraid to skip a sentence. You'll come across that same grammar construction again, eventually. Also, many here don't like using translations, but I find them quite useful. You just have to be cautious, as not all translators are trustworthy.

should i add a sentence to my srs of the words i do understand in my textbook dictionary it says あんまり/あまり　means too much; excessively ; too hard ; cruel; unreasonable

with and example sentence: あんまり面白くないです。＝ it's not too interesting

is this correct? cause if it is i would add this and a couple other sentences that are in my dictionary about the word.

konakona50 Wrote:should i add a sentence to my srs of the words i do understand in my textbook dictionary it says あんまり/あまり　means too much; excessively ; too hard ; cruel; unreasonable

with and example sentence: あんまり面白くないです。＝ it's not too interesting

is this correct? cause if it is i would add this and a couple other sentences that are in my dictionary about the word.

Yea that sentence is fine.

Only add stuff to your SRS that you understand fully, that's the main point. If you find a sentence you do not understand and can not make sense of it even using a dictionary, you're not ready for that sentence yet. No problem, just keep going and in a few months, maybe you'll be ready.

As for あまり・あんまり, it's main most common use is like the one in your example sentence, used with -nai form adjectives and verbs to state that the negative isn't absolute.

私は食べない。 - I don't eat./I'm not going to eat. (Absolute)
私はあまり食べない。- I don't really eat./I'm not going to eat much. (Non absolute)

ok i guess i'll just just continue with my textbooks... thanks!